Tuesday, September 18, 2007

She's Baaaack and I'm Gone

One thing I'll say for Dolores–the grass never grows under her feet. She's been fairly mum about exactly what happened on the tour, although she did confide over an evening cosmo that once the balance sheet was totted up she'd turned a profit of $147.46, not counting tips.

I admitted that I was impressed she'd ended in the black, given the costs of touring with a large troupe and the specialized appeal of her somewhat esoteric act.

"It's all in how you spin it, cupcake," she said. "When you've been in the industry as long as I have, you learn it's not what you got in the box, it's how you wrap it up. I may not be your typical pre-packaged Hollywood bimbo but I know how to bring the boys to the yard."

"Plus it helped that in Peoria they paid us $100 to get out of town," said Harry.

Whereupon there began a heated discussion, and I withdrew to my bedchamber.

This is another of Elizabeth's patterns that, like the Baby Surprise Jacket, has become a classic and for good reason. The design is so ingenious that simply by changing your gauge you can size the thing to fit everybody from infant to adult. Sewing up is minimal. The possibilities for modifying to suit your taste or needs are myriad. The finished product scores in the highest percentile of the adorability scale. What's not to love?

Abigail's Tomten will definitely have a hood. And to jazz it up, I'm also throwing in color patterns. Now, like much of Zimmermann's work the piece is done entirely in garter stitch, which is often striped but seldom in my experience worked with frequent color changes within a single row.

I can't offer a detailed explanation this morning, as I'm off to visit my folks in Indiana in an hour or so. But here's a photograph to show you the stylized leaves around the lower edge of the jacket.

I enjoyed this so much, I'll work up a demonstration/description of how it's done over the next day or so.

But first, I have a date with a Megabus to Indianapolis. Over and out, friends, until I report from deep in the cornfields.

My son (now 19 y.o.) enjoyed several Tomtens, and you're right, you can't beat them for cute. The great baby big eyes peeking out from the hood is a precious effect. Can't wait to hear about the Garter Jacquard -- looks wonderful!

Your ongoig story about Dorothy and Harry are so much fun to read, I laugh more now than I have in a long time. Thank you. There is no question that you are well on your way to be the best uncle. What you give us in the meantime, is a lot of anticipation and sharing your joy, and that my friend is a huge gift to your considerable readership.Have a nice visit with your folksRita

Hmm...I wonder if Montse Stanley's garter stitch jacquard is the same thing as Barbara Walker's garter mosaic? Thanks for bringing to my attention. What a wonderful thing to have an extensive library....knitting or otherwise!

Can I be your niece? My daughters are blessed with such a wonderful aunt and trust me you will reap the rewards later. She is the first who thy call with great news as well as tragedies. She is the ying to my parenting yang.

"...how you spin it..." ::major snerking:: Very cool on the Tomten with colorwork! That is a gorgeous jacket; I remember the first time I saw it in VK back in the 80's, I just fell in love with it. Never knitted it, but now I'm wondering if I could use one in adult gauge! (LOL, may have to be really bulky yarn.) The leaves are beautiful.

Enjoy the visit, and may you not run into any tactless naifs on the bus this time!

You and Dolores make my day--love all your blogs. Can't wait to learn about the jacquard. I did a Surprise Jacket and really loved it--so much more than I thought I would. Learning the color aspect would make it even more fun, but I'll bet it works better on the Tomten, since the construction on BSJ can make it harder to predict outcome, shall we say. Yay EZ!

How cute! I just finished knitting a tomten for a friend's baby (I went with a long collar instead of a hood) and just loved it. I can't wait to hear more about this garter-stitch colorwork thing...I'm very intrigued!

Garter St---plus colors?!? All I can say is Wow! One lucky, lucky niece! Want to adopt me, too? I've read that you can knit the Tomten in any size at all!Oh, and kudos to Dolo for her rave(ing) reviews that I'm sure rolled in everywhere, except perhaps Peoria. :)

Do you have tips for sewing up the BSJ? I'm not afraid of sewing up things, don't mind it really, but I just can't seem to get this one to look good. I've tried crochet, but it didn't work at all.What about mosaic knitting to fancy up garter stitch garments? Would that be the same sort of thing? (Not mosaic, as in the little squares with the dec running diagonal, I mean two colour mosaic knitting, making colour patterns using slip stitches and garter st).

enjoy your trip...and as always, you've intrigued me with this garter jacquard stitch. I've found only vague references in my library (absent of the Reader's Digest book.) I can't wait for this tutorial!

I had the weirdest dream last night, in which I met you and behaved with the most outlandish devotion. In two days I knitted you a sweater out of some green mylar/cashmere (I don't know what it was, but there were definitely silvery strands plyed in there) blend yarn, which had an almost quilted appearance.

Then someone used it as a coaster, and spilled something on it, so that when I gave it to you there was the most terrible staining...

Be aware though---it's a DARK shop. If it's overcast, the lighting is pretty poor (unless they've boosted the lights since I was there).-the owner brings her kids in (not a problem), but she tends to let them run amok, and they crash into other customers and displays (a bit of problem for me).

Franklin Dear,Please take new pics while in Indy. The last one of you on SisterSue's blog makes me nervous that your little stint with the "All Men Suck" brigade has left you underweight and at risk --trust me, you DON'T want to pick up a corn worm while travelling! ;-)

And rock your super-sexy socks off knitting on that bus! Keeps the pervs away, that's for sure.

I really enjoy your following your knitting adventures. I find them very inspirational. Quite frankly the adventures of Dolores scare me a little. I wondered if you had seen the Hemlock Ring Blanket? Just thinking of you and that baby spoiling goal...

it looks great. try out meg's suggestions for knitting the body and the sleeve stitches together (the same way as one makes the shirt yoke for the seamless hybrid). it adds class. she mentions it in the opinionated knitter. it is just so great to knit for all those little relatives and i think tomten is the most adorable knitting. here in copenhagen my niece was stopped at some occasions in the park by americans who wanted to know where they could buy a tomten (that is so weird). and it seems to grow with the child in the nicest of ways.

I really enjoy your blog and the guest spots on Cast On--very funny! I think Buddhism is way cool and as a fellow recovering Catholic, I can see what is attractive about it. (Personally, I couldn't give up eating dead animals. Apologies to Dolores.)

I'd like to present you with a moral dilemma: What would you do if you found a m*th in your stash? Would your love of wool or your spiritual beliefs win out? Would you smash the bastard into next week or donate your stash to him/her and all of his/her relatives for their winter home/feast?

Aahhh the Tomten. I love this jacket. I've knit two. My girls love the sweaters for school so that their uniforms aren't so blah. Got your comment on my pink and brown one on Ravelry! Thanks! ;)

The deep, set-in sleeves are one of the aspects of this design that make it so different from all the eleventybillion baby sweaters out there. I like to accentuate that with a big block of a different color when starting the sleeves so that the design really shows. :)

Ooh. I really like that! I love working garter stitch (perfect for parties where there is comraderie but not an overflowing of the potent potables), and that looks like the perfect way to jazz it up a bit at the beginning and end.

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